Minnesota lawmakers are finally confronting an uncomfortable truth: government anti-poverty programs have become an open invitation to fraud, waste, and abuse. In several of the state’s largest cases, the schemes were centered in parts of Minnesota’s Somali community and involved billions of taxpayer dollars meant to help vulnerable families. That reality is not a smear. It is a documented policy failure. And it is a warning sign for the entire country. As Center for a Free E

Housing supply has emerged as a central concern among conservative tax and economic policy experts. Across multiple outlets and institutions, analysts are reaching the same conclusion. The tax code discourages homeowners from selling, reduces housing inventory, and drives prices higher. While the commentary continues to grow, Congress already has a clear solution. The U.S. House version is H.R. 1340 , and the Senate companion bill is S. 3332 . Together, they are titled the “M

The Center for a Free Economy is leading a coalition of 35 free-market and taxpayer-focused advocacy groups urging federal housing regulators to slow down proposed changes to mortgage credit standards that could destabilize the housing market. In a coalition letter organized and led by CFE, the groups warned Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte  that altering how credit scores are used in mortgage underwriting risks repeating the policy errors that contributed t

Virginia families are about to face higher electricity bills again, and this time it is by design. Governor Abigail Spanberger  has moved to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative , a multistate climate compact better known as RGGI. Supporters sell RGGI as a technical emissions program. In reality, it functions as a backdoor carbon tax that directly raises electricity prices for households and businesses. The track record is clear and it is not encouraging. What RGGI

For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government is spending more on interest payments than on national defense. Annualized interest costs have reached roughly $1.2 trillion, surpassing about $1.16 trillion for defense. The cost of past borrowing now exceeds the cost of protecting the nation. This is not a theoretical warning. It is a budget reality. How the U.S. Reached This Point Decades of persistent deficits have steadily increased the national debt. For years,

The U.S. House last week passed the final batch of fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. Predictably, a wave of online criticism followed, claiming spending levels were too high and that House Republicans failed to deliver deeper cuts. That criticism ignores basic facts and misunderstands how federal budgeting works. First, year-over-year appropriations spending under these bills is set to grow more slowly than both overall inflation and nominal economic growth. That matters

California is pushing a legal theory that should alarm anyone who values mobility, federalism, and basic fairness in the tax code. A new lawsuit challenges whether a state can continue taxing income long after a taxpayer has left , raising serious constitutional questions about how far state tax authority can stretch. At the center of the dispute is California’s effort to tax income earned by former residents who have moved to states like Florida. The lawsuit argues that Cali

A claim circulating online says that seniors are receiving a new $6,000 “bonus exemption” worth $93 billion as part of the Working Families Tax Cut. The suggestion is that retirees are being handed a benefit comparable to what families receive through the Child Tax Credit. That claim is incorrect. The confusion stems from a basic misunderstanding of how the tax code works, specifically the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction. They are not interchangeable, and

The federal budget numbers since the pandemic make one thing clear. Washington does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. From 2019 to today, federal outlays have surged by roughly 59 percent. Over the same period, federal revenue has risen by about 49 percent. Both are large increases. But spending has grown much faster, and that gap explains why the federal deficit has exploded. The deficit was already too high in 2019. Since then, it has roughly doubled. T

Congress has a clear choice on the future of college athletics. It can adopt a free-market framework that protects student-athletes and preserves competition. Or it can invite lawsuits, unionization, and federal micromanagement. H.R. 4312 , the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act, takes the right path. Name, image, and likeness policy is not the only area in need of reform. The same legal chaos now surrounds student-athlete transfers. Both

Virginia Democrats are pushing a major state income tax increase that would not stay confined to the wealthy for long. House Bill 188 (HB 188)  would create a new 10 percent Virginia income tax bracket on earnings above $1 million, sharply increasing the state’s top marginal rate on that income. Supporters sell the bill as a narrow tax hike on high earners. In reality, HB 188 would land squarely on Virginia farms, small businesses, and family-run companies that already operat

Center for a Free Economy President Ryan Ellis recently published an op-ed in National Review Online  explaining how outdated federal tax rules are worsening the housing shortage and squeezing middle-class families out of homeownership. High mortgage rates and elevated prices are only part of the problem. Federal tax policy is also reducing housing supply by discouraging homeowners from selling. An outdated rule is freezing supply Current law allows homeowners to exclude up

President Donald Trump  has proposed allowing Americans to use their 401(k) retirement savings for down payments on homes, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal . The goal is straightforward: help first-time buyers navigate a housing market where prices and mortgage rates remain elevated. That goal makes sense. But like many financial decisions, this approach involves real tradeoffs that families should understand before treating it as a go-to solution. Retiremen

As of this year, several states are blocking food stamp dollars from being spent on soda and candy. That change is overdue. Taxpayer-funded welfare exists to prevent hunger and malnutrition. It is not meant to subsidize junk food. This shift builds on reforms enacted last year, when Congress and President Trump  tightened SNAP eligibility to reduce fraud and abuse. Those changes reinforced a basic principle: welfare programs should be targeted, conditional, and focused on gen

Last year’s major tax law created a new tool for working families: Trump Accounts. Enacted as part of the Working Families Tax Cut passed by President Trump and the Republican Congress in July 2025, the policy is designed to do something Washington rarely does. It uses economic growth to build long-term wealth for every American child. The concept is straightforward. A modest, one-time deposit is made into an investment account at birth. That money is then allowed to grow, un

Capping credit card interest rates at 10% would not just change what borrowers pay. It would wipe out the rewards programs millions of Americans use every day. Points, cash back, airline miles, airport lounges, and statement credits all depend on today’s credit card pricing model. Take that away, and the perks disappear with it. That is not a theory. It is basic credit card economics. Rewards Are Paid for by Interest Margins Credit card rewards are not free. They are funded b

A new proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% would not make credit cheaper. It would make credit disappear. According to a new study , nearly 90% of Americans would lose access to credit cards entirely  if Washington imposes a one-size-fits-all rate cap. That is not consumer protection. It is a credit shutdown. A new analysis from the Electronic Payments Coalition  finds that 175 to 190 million Americans  would effectively lose their credit cards under a 10% annual

Initial Obamacare  enrollment for 2026 is roughly flat. That happened even as gross premiums jumped about 26 percent and COVID-era subsidy bonuses expired. This outcome is not a mystery. It reflects how deeply subsidized Obamacare already is and how enrollment rules hide real market signals. A new analysis from the Paragon Institute explains why Affordable Care Act enrollment barely moved despite higher prices and the end of temporary COVID add-ons. The reason is simple. The

Middle-class families do not need lectures about inflation being “manageable.” They see the problem every month when they pay their bills. Cost-of-living pressure is real, persistent, and concentrated in the expenses households cannot avoid. Since November 2019, prices for basic necessities have surged far faster than overall inflation. Motor vehicle insurance costs have jumped 56.1 percent, the largest increase of any major consumer category. Utility gas service and motor ve

The U.S. housing market just hit an important turning point that makes it easier for homeowners to sell and should increase housing supply over time. For the first time since the pandemic, there are now more homeowners with mortgage rates above 6% than homeowners holding sub-3% Covid mortgages . As of the end of 2025, 21.2% of existing mortgage holders are paying rates of 6% or higher. That is the highest share since 2015, and it now exceeds the share of ultra-low Covid-era l